All About Okra

How to Prepare This Unique Veggie

While hugely popular in Southern cooking, and especially so in Cajun Creole cuisine, and found in virtually all variations of gumbo, okra is still a mostly unknown vegetable in the rest of the North American continent. Its unique look, flavor and texture don’t appeal to all tastes, but knowing how to cook this unique vegetable can help tremendously. Oozing slime if cooked incorrectly, okra is a versatile food that can even be made into a form of "coffee". Curious? Find out more about this green veggie that's anything but typical…

Okra 101Hailing from the Malvaceae family, okra is not your typical vegetable. Not a root or a leaf, okra is actually the seedpod of the okra plant, and is in fact related botanically to cotton. Long and tapered, looking much like a finger, and often referred to as “lady fingers”, okra is covered in a skin that is lightly covered in fuzz. Enclosed within this skin you’ll find rows upon rows of small, soft white seeds running the entire length of the pod. There are a number of varieties of okra, varying in width, shades of green to white, and texture, but the most common are green, ribbed pods.

The name “okra” is thought to be derived from the work “nkruman,” a Twi word from the Gold Coast of Africa, but is often referred to as gumbo. Not to be confused with the true gumbo dish, which is a Cajun Creole food containing a variety of ingredients, like shrimp, sausage, vegetables, and rice that are slow-cooked into a sort of hearty stew.

Selection, Storage & CookingWhen selecting okra, you’ll likely find fresh, frozen and canned okra in your local grocery store. If selecting fresh okra, pay attention to the length of the pod. Okra varies in length from two to seven inches long. The shorter the pod, the younger it is, and the more tender it will be. Longer, more mature pods will be stringy and lacking flavor. Also pay attention to crispness and color – pods should snap in half easily and should have an even green color, lacking in dry, brown spots.

Once you have your okra home, don’t wash it, otherwise you’ll end up with a slimy mess. Instead, store it as is in the refrigerator for up to three days. When you’re ready to get cooking, you can give it a brief washing, but be sure to dry it really well right away. Since okra is so temperamental, there are a few important things to keep in mind. Cooked okra exudes a thick, slimy liquid that is great for thickening soups and stews, but not so great if you want to eat it sautéed, fried or steamed. So, unless you’re popping that okra into some gumbo, be sure to keep the cooking time short. Also, cutting into the okra will allow the slimy liquid out, so just trim up the ends without cutting into the inner chamber and cook the okra whole to keep it crisp.

Okra is great breaded and fried, sautéed with onions and garlic, pickled, or even steamed with a variety of veggies. Okra’s flavor is somewhere between asparagus and eggplant, so it pairs easily with most other foods. If you’d like to try your hand at a wonderful okra dish, try out our Spicy Gumbo tonight and have a Mardi Gras night at your house. And if you’re feeling really adventurous, you can join the few, but proud, who toast okra seeds and then grind them into coffee-like grounds and use them in place of the traditional coffee bean. Tasty? We’ll let you decide.

Nutritional BenefitsSurprisingly, okra is rich in a number of essential nutrients. In just one serving, which is equal to half a cup of okra, you’ll find more than 20% of your daily value for vitamin C and calcium. Okra is also a good source of magnesium, vitamin B6, potassium and more.

Nutritional Benefits

- ½ cup okra -

Calories

26

Fat

0g

Carbohydrates

6g carbs (2g fiber)

Protein

2g

Nutrient RDAs

50mg calcium

20%

37mcg folate

9%

1mg niacin

6-7%

46mg magnesium

13-16%

258mg potassium

8.6-13%*

0.1mg riboflavin

8-9%

0.1mg thiamin

8%

1 mg vitamin E

10-12.5%

460 IU vitamin A

9-11%

0.2mg vitamin B6

15%

13mg vitamin C

22%

*There is no RDA for potassium, but you need about 2,000-3,000mg/day

How Much Do You Know About Food?You know that brownies taste better when they're just out of the oven and that cranberry sauce will taste bitter if you don't add enough sugar. But do you know who invented the brownie or how to select the ripest cranberries? Aside from knowing which foods you love to curl up with, how much do really know about the history and fun facts of your favorite foods? Find out now.

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